17 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article he ran the section lines, as well as creeks, rivers, ridges, and trails that cross those lines. One of those settlers was a fellow named Joseph L. Peasley who claimed 120 acres in Section 28. There is a swampy, shallow lake alongside Highway 22 that my dad always called Peasley Lake, although I never saw a sign with that name on it. (I would bet that some of the remaining “old timers” would also know it by that name.) The lake is almost a quarter mile northerly from the intersection of Highway 22 with the Pamelia Lake Road. The highway actually bisects the swampy “lake” with the majority of it being east of the road. I recall Harry White, while working for the U.S. Forest Service, telling me about finding a dilapidated cabin on the east side of the “swamp.” He also noted that the settler (probably Peasley) had dug a ditch running north from the north end of the “lake” to drain it. obviously to enable growing a garden since the nearest 7-Eleven was far away. That ditch is also clearly visible on a lidar image. When John Minto was viewing the road in 1874 along with T.W. Davenport, they named several features along the route. Boulder Creek, immediately west of Idanha (which was then known as Muskrat Camp) was named by Davenport and is full of large boulders to this day, just as it was in 1874. Minto Mountain was actually named by an unknown writer who passed by it on his way to open a trail for Minto Pass to Black Butte in 1879. Minto had first seen the flat-topped mountain with meadows on top (now known as Minto Mountain) after he had climbed a tree in 1873 on his first trip to the area to view the terrain to the south. The next major stream east of Boulder Creek they called “the White.” Minto relates that “In August, the snow melts from the southwest slopes of Jefferson and runs through volcanic ash as fine as bolted flour and it enters the main Santiam like thickened milk, coloring it down to Mehama sometimes.” The stream later became known as Whitewater Creek. Minto goes on to say “I gave the name Pamelia Creek to the next stream that flows off from the slopes of Mount Jefferson and the name now attaches to the lake at its south base. The name was given for Pamelia Ann Berry, because of her cheerfulness as one of the girl cooks of the working party, of which her father and sister were valued members.” The viewing party continued south about 3 miles and arrived at what they name Independence Valley since they stopped and rested there on the Fourth of July in 1874. A log cabin was built there in the 1890s and was known as Daly’s Cabin. it was about a half mile Northeast of where the Marion Forks Restaurant is today. The 1914 Santiam National Forest map showed it as Independence Prairie. In about 1913, LeRoy Grafe’s family moved to Gates and LeRoy went to work for John Schroeder who had a steam Sawmill and needed someone to help him run it. He soon was “taken captive” by the boss’s attractive blonde daughter Gladys, whom he married on June 14, 1914. In 1915, LeRoy went to work for the Forest Service and he and Gladys spent the summer at Daly’s Cabin. LeRoy directed some of his helpers to chase down reported fires, maintain phone lines, etc. (Daly’s Cabin was “rebuilt” for the USFS in the 1980s with new sill logs, roof, etc by Jim Kitzhaber of Gates.) The 1931 Santiam NF map shows the site as the Independence Prairie Guard Station. The 1937 Santiam NF map shows the Marion Creek Guard Station at the new location along Highway 22 across from the fish hatchery. (The Grafe’s son Willis grew up in the Gates area and was an avid historian and later became the Linn County Engineer.) At Independence Prairie, Minto’s trail turns easterly towards Marion Lake following what they then called the “east branch” of the Santiam River. (They were actually going up what is known today as Marion Creek.) The first major waterfall encountered was named Gatch’s Falls for Prof. T.M. Gatch, president of OAC (Oregon Agricultural College) by election of the parties, the young members all having been his students. In the 1880s, Nathan M. Gooch took a “squatter’s claim” (since the area was un-surveyed until 1900) that included the falls and he built a small cabin nearby. His family later owned the land and always called them Gooch Falls. In 1970, the Oregon Geographic Names Board settled on the name Gooch Falls due to its long usage. The OGLB then decided to name another falls upstream for Gatch, but have not yet acted on it. Minto’s party then proceeded upstream and named the next waterfall Orla Falls. This was coined by the younger members of the company who had danced with Miss Orla Davenport, oldest daughter of their surveyor, T.W. Davenport. Continuing east the viewers came to a large lake, which they named Marion Lake. Looking south across the lake they saw a “rocky peak of many pinnacles” that they named Mount Marion. The peak was locally called Three-fingered Jack. In the early 1900s, Tam McArthur, author of “Oregon Geographic Names,” was told that “the present name was applied because of a three-fingered trapper who lived nearby, whose name was Jack.” Chuck (aka “Rusty”) Whitten grew up in Mill City and graduated in 1967 from Oregon State University with a BS in Forest Engineering and is still a licensed land surveyor in Oregon and Washington (retired). He has lived near Battle Ground, Washington, since 1977. One of his hobbies since retirement has been writing occasional stories for the North Santiam Historical Society Newsletter (in Mill City) about early history in the North Santiam Canyon. This article originally appeared in the Spring 2023 newsletter of the North Santiam Historical Society. Daly's Cabin, 1904 Chuck Whitten scanned this image from his original copy of “Looters of the Public Domain” (1908) by Stephen A.D. Puter from page 147. continued
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